Last year, Lance Wyatt allegedly tried murdering his girlfriend Peggy Keane by strangling her. Keane survived, and prosecutors say Wyatt tried again after getting out on bail -- this time with a knife.
Wyatt was arrested for attempting to strangle Keane in 2010, but hadn't served serious jail time because his father had the $100,00 bail money he needed to remain free. That may have given Wyatt a chance to try killing Keane again on Friday.
Officers responded to a call from a neighbor in Keane's Lake Shore Drive apartment building early Friday. The caller had heard sounds of abuse coming from the apartment, as well as Wyatt saying, "Shut the f*** up, stop crying," the Chicago Tribune reports.
Wyatt apparently barricaded the door and, by the time officers were able to enter, Keane was bleeding profusely and vomiting blood while a friend who was in the apartment tended to her wounds. Meanwhile, Wyatt himself was standing out on the ledge of the eleventh-story apartment, one hand reportedly concealed under his shirt.
"I've got something for you -- go ahead and shoot me or I'm going to kill you," he reportedly told the police on the scene.
But officers were able to pull him down from the ledge before he could jump, and Wyatt was taken to Northwestern Hospital. So too was Keane, who underwent surgery on her vocal cords.
According to the Sun-Times, Keane's friend likely saved her life by stanching the blood flow at the time of her injury.
Aside from the attempted murder charge in 2010, and this recent alleged murder attempt, Wyatt was charged in 2007 with first-degree attempted murder and unlawful restraint, according to the Tribune. He was sentenced to one year in prison for those crimes.